HTC Vive Listed For Pre-Order On eBay At â‚¬1,099

Recent speculations surrounding the HTC Vive has indicated that the commercial edition of the upcoming VR headset from the Taiwanese tech company may be priced at a significant premium to that of its nearest competitors. While the rumored $1,500 price-tag would make it a seriously costly proposition for most mainstream gamers and technology enthusiasts, some commentators, playing the Devil’s advocate, have suggested that the features of HTC’s virtual reality headset does indeed justify a high price, even if that limits the mainstream reach of the device. Now, however, a listing has popped up on eBay that seems to be quoting a â‚¬1,099 ($1,200) price-tag for early birds wanting to pre-order the upcoming gadget. Official pre-orders for the device, however, will start from the 29th of next month, while the device will actually start shipping from April.

As HTC is yet to make the Vive official, it is impossible to say whether it will indeed be priced that high, or if it will come with a slightly more pocket-friendly price-tag. Either way, it seems highly unlikely that it will be priced similarly to that of the Oculus Rift, which went on pre-order earlier this month at $599. That in itself, was deemed to be an inordinately high price by many, forcing an explanation from the founder of Oculus VR and the inventor of the Rift, Mr. Palmer Luckey. While Sony’s much-rumored PlayStation VR is yet to hit the market, that particular headset is also expected to be one of the biggest competitors for the HTC Vive, but is expected to be priced between $400 and $600, according to reports. The only VR headset from a tier-1 multinational in the market today, the Samsung Gear VR, meanwhile, costs just $99.

Coming to the HTC Vive, the upcoming VR headset from the Taiwanese tech company is a collaboration between HTC and the world’s largest digital video game distribution company, Valve Corporation. As mentioned already, the device will have multiple competitors in the marketplace, so it remains to be seen how it fares, especially as HTC seems to be betting big on it. The company’s co-founder and CEO, Ms. Cher Wang, has recently been quoted as saying that she expects the virtual reality sector to be a bigger revenue earner for the company than its struggling smartphone business in the not-so-distant future.